Opinion: No silver bullet to make every child a musician

One Friday after the last school bell, one of my brightest Year 7 students came into the music room and made to deposit her violin in the corner.

‘Aren't you going to practise this weekend, Klara?’ I asked lightly.

‘No,’ she said laughingly. ‘I don't want that noisy thing in my house!’

Her tone was unmistakably that of an older relative, for whose opinion she was momentarily a conduit. She grinned, pleased with herself, as children sometimes are when they copy an adult behaviour and feel very grown up.

I was extremely perturbed by this episode. I was an optimistic trainee teacher in the London Borough of Newham, where the celebrated ‘Every Child a Musician’ scheme provided instrumental tuition in the Western art music tradition to all primary school aged children. Additionally, in our school we were able to nominate children on free school meals such as Klara to benefit from the same. My more experienced colleague reminded me that children like Klara often share bedrooms and small living spaces with several other family members, and that many of our students’ parents worked – and therefore slept – at peculiar hours. The last thing such a parent needs is the screech of a bow drawn inexpertly across cheap strings.